1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for dialing a telephone number and, in particular, to a method for dialing an international or long-distance telephone number by first accessing a desired country code or area code, which is stored in a memory of the telephone, and then dialing the telephone number using the country code or area code which was retrieved from the memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a telephone number consists of an international telephone identification code, a country code, an area code and a subscriber's number. For example, 001 and 002 are the international telephone identification codes for Korea. Furthermore, the country code for Korea is 82, and the country code for Japan is 81. Next, the area code for Seoul, Korea is 01, and the area code for Soonchun, Korea is 0661.
There are various methods which may be utilized for dialing telephone numbers in conventional telephones. For example, a user may off-hook a telephone, (i.e., take a handset from the receiver or press a specific function key to put the telephone in its dialing mode to obtain a dial tone) and then directly dial a desired telephone number by pressing the corresponding numeric keys on the telephone. Additionally, the user may dial a telephone number by pressing a redialing key, which operates a redialing function, to automatically redial a previously dialed telephone number which is stored in the telephone. Another method for dialing a telephone number involves the use of short keys (i.e, speed dial function), whereby a user first inputs a frequently used telephone number by pressing the appropriate numeric keys and then stores such telephone number by pressing a particular short key. The user may then subsequently dial a stored telephone number by pressing the corresponding short key.
These methods are very useful when the telephone number is either a local telephone number (i.e., a telephone number that is included in the user's area code), a telephone number which can be dialed by pressing the corresponding short key (i.e., performing a speed dial function), or a telephone number that is stored in the redialing key. Conventional telephones, however, do not store country codes and area codes. Consequently, when a user wants to make either a long-distance call (i.e., a telephone number that is not included in the user's area code) or an international call, the user must know the area code or country code, as well as subscriber's number. Otherwise, the user must obtain the desired area code or country code from a telephone directory or computer program, which is an extremely burdensome task. Moreover, with the development of mobile communications and the resulting wide use of cellular phones, such burden is increased since country code and area code information is not readily available to a user when, for example, the cellular phone is being used while the user is driving his or her car.